The Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) was the oldest and largest Australian rules football league for women in the world, consisting of 47 clubs from Victoria, Australia across seven divisions with a total of over 1,000 players.

History

Early years

The Victorian Women's Football League was formed in 1981 with four teams competing at open level. In 1995, Sal Rees caused controversy when she nominated for the 1995 AFL Draft: the nomination was subsequently voided, with the AFL amending its Draft rules to prevent any repeat of this incident. The VWFL grew quickly, increasing dramatically the number of players and participating teams with a Division 3 added in 2001. In 2002, VWFL player Debbie Lee made headlines for pushing to play against men in the made-for-television team the Hammerheads. She has commented, "My whole idea with the Hammerheads was to promote women's football. At no point in time did I really think I was going to play against the men, and frankly it wouldn't really have been smart for me to do that. My whole idea was to cause a bit of activity." An U17 Youth Girls Competition was established by Football Victoria in 2004, primarily to provide a pathway to the VWFL. This was following legal action having been taken against them in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (following a complaint to the Equal Opportunity Commission) by junior players Penny Cula-Reid, Emily Stayner, and Helen Taylor. In May 2004, the first VWFL game was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), with the Melbourne Uni Mugars defeating St Albans Spurs on Mother's Day. A second game was played at the MCG later in the same year, featuring the Mugars and St Kilda Sharks reserves teams.

A quarter-century of competition

In 2005, the VWFL celebrated its 25th season, and created a reserves competition for Division 1. In 2006, the league posted a $6000 loss, however this was turned around in 2007 with a $19000 profit being posted at the end of 2007. 2007 saw five divisions (Premier seniors & reserves, North West, South East & Country) and 27 teams (from 20 clubs), and culminated in an Australian crowd record for women's Australian rules football at the 2007 Grand Final held on 19 August at the Preston City Oval in Melbourne. Two finals matches were also held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the first time. The work done by the VWFL Media Manager Leesa Catto was instrumental in increasing media coverage across the competition. A significant partnership was negotiated with the Leader News group and weekly coverage was captured across the Melbourne Metropolitan area. Events like the participation of two VWFL players Shannon McFerran and Daisy Pearce in the E. J. Whitten Legends Game also helped lift the profile of the league. The VWFL integrated into AFL Victoria in 2013.

Dissolution

At the end of the 2016 season, it was announced that the VWFL would be dissolved, with the forty-seven clubs and sixty teams of the VWFL joining ten Victorian community leagues in 2017, along with additional clubs and teams from a further eighty clubs that had expressed interest in joining women's Australian football competitions. AFL Victoria would retain management of the ten-team VFL Women's league, with the remainder of the expected 150 teams to play in regional leagues.

Final clubs

Premier Division

Division 1

Division 2

Division 3

Goldfields

North West

South East

Former

Records

Division One/Premier Division

Source:

Premier Reserves

Premiers: North West Conference

Premiers: South East Conference

Premiers: Country Conference

2007 Melton Centrals 2006 Geelong Cheetahz

Premiers: Division One

Premiers: Division Two

Premiers: Division Three

Premiers: Division Four

Premiers: Division 5

Premiers: East Division

Premiers: West Division

Premiers: Goldfields Division

VWFL Life Members

2009 Leesa Catto 2009 Bron McGorlick 2008 Kerryn Stephen 2006 Chyloe Kurdas 2005 Di Smith 2004 Belinda Bowey 2003 Sally Rees, Rohenna Young 2002 Debbie Lee, Kerry Saunders 2001 Nicole Graves 2000 Lisa Hardeman 1999 Ann Rulton 1998 Julie Allen 1997 Dianne Vaux 1996 Bernadette Marantelli 1995 Coral White 1990 Jan Wilson, Janet Graham 1983 Helen Lambert

250 Games (as at end of 2011)

Debbie Lee (East Brunswick Scorpions/Sunshine YCW/St Albans Spurs) Kerry Saunders (Darebin Falcons/St Kilda City) Belinda Bowey (St Kilda Sharks/Keysborough)